David Kudish, founder of Stratford Advisory Group, retired as chairman and created Advocate Investment Advisors, a consulting firm that represents and protects the interests of plan fiduciaries. He remains chairman emeritus of Stratford.
Advocate will provide investment audits of pension plans’ investment consultants and investment managers to determine whether there are conflicts of interests or undisclosed relationships among the consultant and money managers. It also will "discover and plug the holes” caused by excessive fees or improper or undisclosed expenditures of plan assets, he said. Remedies could include firing the consultant, shifting assets among managers and renegotiating fees. Advocate will be paid a percentage of recovered assets or saved fees.
So far, Mr. Kudish has conducted an investment audit for a hospital in California, which he declined to identify.